Your Decision

Birth Control gives you the freedom to enjoy sex without worry about pregnancy.

Birth control makes it possible to prevent pregnancy and gives you the power to control your future. You may use birth control to delay pregnancy until you are ready, space out the births of babies, determine the size of your family, or never get pregnant. This chart explains your birth control options.

Making Your Decision

No one method is best for everyone. People may use several methods over the course of their lifetime. The various methods affect people differently. People who use birth control can learn a lot from each other. Open conversation with your partner, parents, and friends can help you choose a method that works for you.

Effectiveness

Effectiveness is a measure of pregnancy avoidance rates over one year of use. 99.5% means that, out of 1000 women who used that method for one year, 995 avoided pregnancy and 5 got pregnant. When a range is given, the higher number is how well the method worked when used perfectly every time. The lower number is based upon “typical” use. For comparison, 85% of sexually active women will get pregnant in one year if no birth control is used.

Double Up

Simultaneous use of two methods dramatically reduces chance of pregnancy. Some good combinations are a male condom and a cervical cap, spermicide and a male condom, or withdrawal and spermicide.

Getting Birth Control

If you live in Washington State, you can apply for free or low cost birth control through Title X funding. Teens do not need parent’s permission. Apply at Cedar River Clinics in Renton, Seattle, or Tacoma, WA. If you live outside the Puget Sound area, call your local County Public Health department or family planning clinic.

If Pregnancy Occurs

You can decide between parenting, adoption, or abortion.

Human Rights

Birth control and abortion are personal decisions. Government, parents, friends, and partners should respect and support your decisions. If someone attempts to stop you, force you, or undermine your use of birth control or abortion, it is a violation of your human rights. You have a fundamental human right to make your own decisions about your body and your reproduction.

Sexuality

Everyone gets to express their own sexuality. Though same sex partners do not need to worry about pregnancy, many people who identify as lesbian or gay may, at times, engage in heterosexual intercourse and use birth control to prevent pregnancy.

HIV/AIDS and STI

Despite many choices for birth control, there is only one way to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS or Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs). To prevent blood, semen, or vaginal secretions from passing from one partner to another during vaginal, anal, or oral sex, partners use a female or male condom, dental dam or plastic wrap, and cover shared sex toys.

We publish this unique chart for those who want to take charge of their reproduction. It is also used by health educators, clinicians, students, and parents. The chart covers all forms of birth control approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use int he United States. There may be other methods in other countries.

Cedar River Clinics provides birth control, first and second trimester abortion, the abortion pill, STI testing and treatment, pregnancy tests, well-woman care, and LGBTQ wellness services. We have a vision of a world where we can freely make our own decisions regarding our bodies, reproduction, and sexuality — a world where we can fulfill our own unique potential and live healthy, whole lives. We trust you to decide what is best for you.

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credits: Created by Cedar River Clinics, Birth-Control-Comparison.info covers all forms of birth control approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in the United States. There may be other methods in other countries. Primary Sources: U.S. Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the book Contraceptive Technology.